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As you may or may not have noticed, there has been a lack of Women’s JV teams this year. There have been two teams (soccer and softball) that were close to not being established due to lack of players.

Let’s start off with soccer. Last year, according to Maxpreps.com, there were fifteen players on the team last year. This year there are fourteen. On the Varsity team, there were twenty-one people last year. This year, there are twenty. According to Apex JV Goalie, Lydia Dorcelien (sophomore), the teams first game was only their fifth time meeting.

The JV team only has one goalie, and three subs. Soccer is typically not a sport that you are able to play for an elongated amount of time, due to its vigor. Dorecelien is going to be in New York during one of their games this season, and Jena Durrette (junior) will be taking her place temporarily, which is not ideal because her usual spot is center forward. Having such a small team makes it hard when people have mandatory events and are not able to play in that game, which throws the whole team off and does not set the team up for success.

Before I move onto softball, I want to talk about a team with a large influx of players this year. That is Women’s JV Lacrosse. Last year, I was a part of the JV team here at Apex, mostly due to the fact that there were no cuts. I decided not to play this year because of scheduling issues with other commitments of mine, however, this year there has been a lot of talent added to both Varsity and JV teams this year. There were many talented freshman on that tried out this year and many people who are newcomers, but really have a knack for the sport. Last year, there were probably 25-30 girls who tried out for JV, and it was really just a matter of what team you made (JV or Varsity). This year there were around sixty girls who tried out for only JV. Being there are only about twenty-five spots on the team, it was made obvious cuts were going to have to be made. The team has already thrived this year with new head coach, Amanda Rutledge, and have won both of the games they have played.

Now, back to softball. Last year, there were fifteen players on the JV team, and this year there are eleven. There are nine people on the field at one time, so you can imagine how difficult that can be. According to Madison Freauf (sophomore), it was about a week after tryouts that a player decided that she no longer wanted to play and it was then that the team began the search for new players to create a team.

So, along with this article, there are still a few questions that linger. Why the lack of players? Is this a one-time thing or going to be a trend? How will sports teams find new people interested in the sport? No one can tell the future of these JV teams, so do what we can and support the girls who are sticking it out for the season and making the Apex Cougars proud!